토픽의 결과와 다른 다양한 이야기 - la vita è

토픽의 결과와 다른 다양한 이야기

I'm not sure what happened, but in the last few hours I somehow started simultaneously talking to 7 guys on Jack'd. Like, seriously? After the drought/minor depression I've been in, I find this hilarious.

But really, let's talk about something much more important right now: the score for the October TOPIK came out on Friday.

Writing: 51Reading: 68Listening: 72Total: 191Level 5

I've taken the TOPIK 8 times in the last two years, in various formats, and I am finally considered 고급/to have an advanced level of Korean.

Entering this scholarship program I'd originally thought I would end up with a 5 or a 6 in a year, only to find out, well... That wasn't really the case.

It's funny, actually, in a sad sort of way, how much of my self-worth I've had tied up in this damn test. I'm not great at Korean by any means, and in fact feel like a moron on a daily basis. But, compared to most foreigners, I'm pretty good. I dunno. It's silly.

More importantly, however, is the fact that - since I have attained a high score on the TOPIK - I will now be receiving 10만원 more every month as part of my scholarship. Word.

I have two papers to write right now. One I'm in the middle (okay, beginning) of - it's called "A Man's Regrets: Masculinity, Abjection, and Coming of Age in Choe Yun's The Last of Hanako". The other paper is as of yet untitled, but it will be analyzing reader-response theory in 최인훈의 구운몽. Maybe. Or gender and sexuality in 최인훈의 광장. To be decided, to be frank. I am having a lot of trouble motivating myself to work on these papers, which is bad, since there are only like 3 weeks left of the semester and I gotta write this shit in English and Korean (because my Korean is tragic, so the English will help clarify matters slightly). Gotta push myself a bit more...

On Friday I met up with Alyn for a study date. We talked and studied at a nice, quiet coffeeshop near 상수역 and then met up with Kay for a delicious dinner at a place in 홍대. Yesterday (Saturday) I was supposed to meet a Korean friend for dinner, but he canceled, and at the last minute I met up with a gyopo Korean-Canadian I've been talking to on and off since April. Nice guy. For whatever reason I went to bed in a bad mood and had a nightmare about chasing down giant bugs in my room... I actually woke up breathing heavily because I had been freaking out in the dream. Weird.